"'...no one would even try to give an atmosphere to Luna or Mercury.'" (p. 161)
There is a Poul Anderson story about a project to terraform the Moon. Anderson covers every option.
In HG Wells' The First Men In The Moon, the Moon does have an atmosphere that freezes at night. In Robert Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon," there is speculation that the Moon once had an atmosphere but that Lunar life and atmosphere were destroyed by a nuclear war which explains the craters. In Anderson's Technic History, parts of the Lunar surface are terraformed. See The Lunar Surface In Science Fiction.
In the Psychotechnic History, on Luna and Mercury, the Order of Planetary Engineers concentrates on underground installations with efficient airlocks and stored solar energy. The main point here is that every planet is different and that terraforming may or may not be possible.
9 comments:
The problem with the Moon would be the low gravity -- if you gave it an atmosphere, it wouldn't stick around long. Also no magnetic field, but that's a lesser problem.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
You may well be right, but I still love the idea of terraforming the Moon. And, in "Strange Bedfellows," Anderson gave serious thought to how that might be done. And done so well that its new atmosphere was expected to last 500,000 years.
Ad astra! Sean
"Strange Bedfellows" says Lunar gravity low but air loss slow.
Paul: slow in human terms, rapid in geological ones.
Mind you, 500,000 years is longer than the span to date of h. sapiens sapiens; we emerged around 300K-250K years ago.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
And terraforming the Moon is something well worth doing!
Ad astra! Sean
Perhaps some transparent cover to keep the air in would be used by any lunar terraformers.
However, we know that months of zero gee is bad for human health. Unless 1/6th gee is OK for human health, terraforming the moon would not be done.
Also using lunar material to make rotating space habitats would create far more living area with a tiny fraction of the moon's mass, which would be another reason not to bother with terraforming the moon.
Kaor, Jim!
Transparent covers has been suggested for protecting Lunar bases and cities by various SF authors.
I would need to reread "Strange Bedfellows" to be sure, but I got the impression Anderson thought a terraformed Moon would, because of atmospheric pressure, have a gravity approximating half a Terran g. That would be plenty for maintaining human health.
Or genetic engineering might be used for adapting humans to living healthfully on the Moon, as we see in Anderson's Lunarians in THE HARVEST OF STARS books.
Ad astra! Sean
In the Draka series, I just had them dome over the craters, and combine that with massive tunnels -between- the craters.
That would give you a -lot- of surface area, and you wouldn't have to worry about the cosmic radiation or losing atmosphere to space.
The recycling wouldn't be 100% effective, but 'close enough for government work'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I like those ideas too.
Ad astra! Sean
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